1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile.
2. Description of the Related Art
New recording media have been developed due to market demand. Therefore, there is a desire to use such new recording media in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
When such new recording media are used in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, heat that is applied from a fixing device has no influence on the human body, but a very small amount of volatile-organic-compound-containing gas may be generated.
A proposal for reducing the amount of volatile-organic-compound-containing gas that is discharged out of the image forming apparatus has been made.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-240270 discusses disposing a filter, which absorbs volatile-organic-compound-containing gas, in an exhaust duct of an image forming apparatus.
However, when the filter is disposed in the exhaust duct that exhausts heat of the image forming apparatus as discussed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-240270, the filter causes exhaust back pressure. Therefore, the heat in the image forming apparatus may not be sufficiently exhausted.
In addition, in the above-described example, since the volatile organic compound is removed by passing air through the filter only once, the efficiency with which the volatile organic compound is removed can still be improved.